30mb Virgin Media Lease Line - Overkill?

[bsb]

Need some advice, we have a primary school with a standard ADSL 15mb internet connection - it struggling to cope with the traffic of around 65 computers accessing it (as you would expect)

 

FTTC is not available, and we are contemplating a leased line, the cost for 10/20 and 30mb with Virgin Media is the exact same.

Would it be overkill to for a leased line? or should we stick to bonded ADSL or maybe even a EFM circuit line?

 

Thank you

[kevin_lane]

Depends on your budget really and if you really think the school would benifit from having such speeds

[localzuk]

As @kevin_lane says, it really depends on your usage. I'd personally say that 30Mb for 65 machines doesn't sound too bad.

 

Do you have a proxy/caching server in school at all? That might help reduce some demand on the line if you don't.

[timbo343]

There must be a lot of traffic been used for 65 computers on a 15mb line. We have nearly 500 machines using a 30mb FTTC line and have never used 20mb of it.

[localzuk]

There must be a lot of traffic been used for 65 computers on a 15mb line. We have nearly 500 machines using a 30mb FTTC line and have never used 20mb of it.

 

That seems odd! We have a 100Mbit line, with about 300 machines and we max it out sometimes! It averages around 40Mbps though. We're using 36Mbps right now, and there's no classes on!

Edited March 13, 2015 by localzuk

[DavePa]

We have a site that went from ADSL (4 down, 0.8 up) to VM 'home' fibre (50 down, 5 up) and finally leased line (30 down, 30 up). Although the 'home' line could cope with the traffic it was not reliable and as we are using VOIP telephony as well we had no end of problem - VM would not give any service guarantee and as it was a 'home' line there was no QOS support. We suffered frequent (as in daily) dropouts where the phones would cut off part way through a conversation - embarrassing when you are talking to a parent. The problems didn't only affect the voice though - students had problems with online exams dropping out as well. Although the leased line has a slower download speed we haven't had a single complaint about it and the increased upload speed and reliability have more than justified the cost. If you have the budget for it, go for it!

[win]

I would invest in a quality firewall that can do filtering. I can't imagine a primary school maxing out on 15mb, i'm guessing that someone is using bittorrent on your network or other p2p software. A quality firewall can help you identify and block it.

[Michael]

A lease line is definitely the way to go. Most schools in Birmingham are connected this way. The beauty of a lease line is you get the guaranteed speed, and you have a guaranteed uptime of 99.8% typically, which you won't get with a BT FTTC solution. Long-term, it's more so about your ability (as a school) to pay, as most lease lines are capable of 1000Mbps. Sounds overkill now, but it won't be in the future - especially for larger establishments.

[localzuk]

I would invest in a quality firewall that can do filtering. I can't imagine a primary school maxing out on 15mb, i'm guessing that someone is using bittorrent on your network or other p2p software. A quality firewall can help you identify and block it.

 

Really?! A youtube stream can be 5Mbps for a single HD stream. If you've got a class full loading video, you'll max it easily.

[SchoolsBroadband]

yes it all depends what you use the Internet for.

 

We have some primary schools that average just over 1Mbit but then we have others that are over 20Mbit.

 

Are you able to get any bandwidth stats out of your current provider? This will give you an idea of what you're really using.

 

Oh and if you want me to beat Virgin Media's price just let me know @bsb

 

Thanks

 

Dave